True Confessions

Confession time - I’ve gotten hooked on Instagram reels. Up til now, I’ve ignored reels on every platform. You want my attention? Put it in writing, I’d rather read about it. But Insta’s how-to reels roped me right in. 

First it was quilts… then plants… wood furniture finishing (fascinating to watch but I don’t want to actually do it)… and now it’s… silver polishing. 

Comparison halfway thru cleaning

Over the years, hubby has brought home a collection of mostly* silver-plated items from flea markets, swap meets and such. I remember silver cleaning as very labor intensive, so wasn’t real keen on fixing them up.

Until I saw a couple of reels that made it look easy! and fun!

This was in rough shape

According to experts, the easy and fun method was more likely to damage the silver than clean it, but by then I was hooked. 

Trademark ‘Chippendale’ ‘6364’

A couple of evenings, a bit of elbow grease (ok, a lot of elbow grease) and voila! Look how pretty and shiny they are!

My favorite is this Chippendale Silent Butler, circa 1980. 

But a close second is the filigree on this tray. So pretty. Now I’m hoping he finds more silver treasure to bring home.

* I say ‘mostly’ because 2 serving spoons in his collection turned out to be sterling silver. Score!

Descanso Gardens

We met up with hubby’s sister and BIL for lunch 

(Black Cow Cafe in Montrose - so good!!)

then headed to Descanso Gardens for a walk-about.

Temps were almost perfect - 

it got a little too warm as we were leaving - 

and the flowers were gorgeous as always. 

We’d hoped to see tulips and other spring flowers, 

but they must have bloomed earlier,

so we had to make do with lilacs, camellias and irises (irisi?). 

Lilacs and iris are some of my favorites so no complaints from me.

I picked up a tiny succulent (and a kitty-shaped pot) 

that Marie says is a Tiger Kalanchoe (cal-en-co-ee). So unusual!

Double Up

The next Birdwatchers Project pattern comes out Thursday, so I was motivated to get one finished so I’d be (almost) caught up.

This is the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, one of 2 patterns released in March. Fast, easy pattern except for that tiny black bill. I sewed and ripped and sewed again at least 8 times trying to get the edges to align. Finally accepted that this was as close as I was going to get before the fabric frayed apart. The second March pattern - Cerulean Warbler - is cut, folded, color-coded and ready to sew, hopefully tomorrow.

Also finished Wildflower #14 tonight. TV marathons are really good for getting projects done. 

Here’s the first 13 blocks, in no particular order. I’ll square these up before adding a slightly different blue for sashing. Getting close to done!

Hoppy Easter

We had a relaxing Easter, complete with homemade tacos, Mexican rice and deviled eggs for dinner. Miss having the grands here, especially egg hunts and raiding their candy baskets. They were usually pretty good about sharing candy they didn’t like or things they knew were our favorites. (I need to go find Reese’s peanut butter eggs before they disappear…) From Idaho -

and S. Carolina.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

100 Days - Newcomer

I don’t think Cyrus has officially joined the 100 Days challenge but she sent me this pic of her freshly finished pomegranate. Gorgeous! I’m envious of people who can do counted cross stitch, especially at this tiny-stitch level. I’ve tried, it’s just not in my skill set. 

Rachel is ready to do the borders on her project. I’m wondering what she’s going to work on next since we still have lots of Days until we hit 100 in June. 

Wildflower #13 is done! And thanks to a new bingable tv series (Tracker) #14 is almost halfway finished too.

My Very Own Thumble

While we were in S. Carolina, Donovan picked out a present for me - my very own thumble. He also got one for himself, “mine is better but I thought you’d like the flower more.” He’s not wrong! 

(Because it goes on your thumb. Duh. 😂)

Donovan has started regular horse pony riding lessons at a local farm. On the first day, he called - very excited - to tell us his horse walked and then ‘ran’. “It was scary but I got used to it pretty fast.” 

They also did a trail ride into the ‘jungle’, where he heard lots of birds. He looks so big on that pony! He must have grown a foot since we dropped him off.

Received pretty pics from Rachel - ‘Baby is sewing a dress. Awwwww.’ - 

followed immediately by a text from Cyrus - ‘the thread is bunching! Why is the thread bunching!? Grandmaaaaaaaa help!’

Multiple texts, links to 2 articles and a few illustrations later, problem solved and dress finished. Happy Baby (and Grandma, who was thrilled to be able to help long-distance). 

Leo sent pics of their first baby turkeys ⬆️ and another batch of about a dozen baby chicks.⬇️

She said one of the bigger chicks escaped its enclosure and survived a few days on the lam before deciding life was better with security and free food. It was waiting at the gate when she went out that morning with feed. 😂

Plant Chores, Fun and Not So Much

Starting with the not so fun plant chores…

this Crown of Thorns sits beside our front porch and over the years has gotten a tad overgrown. We’ve been avoiding dealing with it because… look at those spikes!

But it was on my must-do list and tomorrow is trash day, so hubby and I chopped it back as close to the pot as we could get. Marie, my phone-a-friend, what-the-heck-is-this expert, says the white milky sap is irritating if it gets in your eye but not toxic to adults.

Plant on the right is a giant rosemary (the herb) that also loves this spot

Do I care if we killed it? Nope! Although I think it’ll take more than pruning to get the better of it. I’m ok if it grows back - hubby really likes the flowers - but we’ll keep a better eye on it going forward. 

There’s something about this spot that plants really like. 

This Aeonium Kiwi (yes I had to ask Marie what it was…) and the Crown of Thorns obviously busted through those blue ceramic pots we had them in and rooted into the ground. This one I like! Planning to take cuttings and hopefully get more of this growing in the yard. 

The fun plant chore? Replanting the amaryllis bulbs Gary and Cheyenne gave me in December. I was able to cut the plastic cover from the small bulb (white flower) 

but I had to call in The Tool Man to get the big one apart (red flower). I forgot to get a picture, but the bigger bulb has a pup/baby/tiny bulb forming near the roots. 

Hoping these survive and I can get 3 - or more - flowers for the holidays.